23 March 2008
endorphins
I'm back at school and actually super happy about it. Skiing was fun, but I was missing reality and my alone time and my computer. The snow was great, and it only actually snowed on one of the days... for the rest of the time the conditions were awesome. I wasn't sore at all which was fantastic... usually the second day is a bitch but not this time. The stairmaster has been working its magic on my thighs. I would write more but I've talked about my break enough today... so, yeah. Sorry.
So I flew into Ontario yesterday at noon and have been having a great time ever since. The morning itself pretty much sucked until I got to California: waking up really early, sitting in the car, maneuvering my way through the packed and chaotic Salt Lake City airport, waiting for ages to board, sitting in the last row in the corner next to a smelly, obese man, and waiting at baggage claim and praying my bag actually got on to the right plane in SLC. But from the car ride home, and going to Vons to get groceries and flowers and chatting with the friendly checkout people, flirting with the cute guy at Full of Life, eating a delicious salad, having coffee with a new friend, working out, taking a delicious shower and then catching up with my thoughts in my journal... fantastic. Today I woke up at 8am like every other morning this week and felt quite rested, and chilled out until 11:30 when I picked up Alexis at the airport and we caught up with each other's breaks over a delightful lunch at a cafe in the village. Then I read a book she had brought from home for me about emotional eating which was eye-opening and insightful, and wrote a cover letter for an internship I might apply for. Then I had dinner in the dining hall (which are all finally open and which I have actually missed this week, having to eat out in restaurants twice a day) with three of my best friends and we sat for ages and talked while I drank cups of my favorite Mudd coffee. Now I'm listening to an awesome new Spoon album I bought before I left but hadn't synched onto my iPod, and I'm hitting my ankle against the chair leg in rhythm to the beats and it actually doesn't hurt, it feels great. Yeah, I should totally work out right now.
So happy to be back! And did I mention its in the 80s here? I love California and may never leave.
18 March 2008
easyquickandfast
We're skiing in Utah. My brother just said these gems of wisdom tonight at dinner:
(on why he doesn't want breasts, even for just a day): "because then I wouldn't love them as much as I do now"
(on testicles): "they're literally an organ hanging outside your body"
Yeah, we talk about body parts at dinner.
13 March 2008
sandandstars
I'm basically done with school for a week... I have one class tomorrow morning but its a group presentation day and I'm not presenting, so all is well; I'll roll out of bed, hop over to breakfast and then walk down to Pomona in sweats and then be actually finished with classes. On Sunday I fly to Salt Lake City where I'll meet my brother flying from New York, and we'll be picked up in our car by my parents and sister for five days of skiing at Snow Basin... which right now I can't actually imagine doing since I'm pretty exhausted from this week but I'm sure by Sunday I'll be rested and happy enough to be ready. Until then, I've got a list of things I want to do:
So basically doing things I never or rarely do. Should be fun! My friends are quickly dropping like flies... Carolyn left today, Keri leaves tomorrow, Alexis leaves Saturday and so might Eva. Campus should start to get quiet tonight... and the dining halls all close by tomorrow night. I'm kind of ambivalent about everything stopping for ten days... but I'm just in an introspective place right now and I'm trying to work with it in the healthiest way possible. The above to-do list is meant to help with that.
Can I just say that it's gorgeous right now? All the time. Sun, clouds, breezes, wrapped in cashmere, softness, light. I love it.
........
March 14th - 10:13am
I didn't get a chance to finish this before I got whisked away for a fun whirlwind of an evening last night. After I wrote the above yesterday, I felt inspired to capture with my camera my dorm and the surrounding area on campus as it reveled in the beauty of dusk, so here's where I live and the peacefulness that helps calm life down when life gets too full of itself for its own good.
Wahoo! My MacBook came today. After going to Best Buy to pick up the CDs onto which Geek Squad transferred my stuff from my old hard drive, I spent the afternoon getting my music into iTunes, my photos into iPhoto, my iPod synced and charged, setting up the dorm printer settings, getting cozy with the Scripps network, and figuring out to use this crazy creative little computer... it's so tactile and intuitive and versatile. The only thing that isn't done is getting Microsoft Office for Mac on here... my graphic designer friend has a 5-user version of the software and because she's a wonderful person she's letting me install it for free. So until I get that from her tonight or tomorrow, I can't open any of my old Word/Excel documents. But that's small beans compared to being complete again! I swear, my computer is like my brain. Without it, I'm lost.
03 March 2008
woecoffee
So I'm still laptopless. (I was going to use that word in my current facebook status but decided the 'topless' part was not something I wanted on my profile for the next four days.) This happened at the worst possible time for my Dad who is the one who has to do the actual buying of my new laptop since last week he was in New York on business, then he flew home to Arizona on Friday and had a big church fundraiser to attend that night, and then he flew to Oregon to visit his mother for the weekend. He's told me that tonight he'll decide for sure what he's going to get (it's some kind of MacBook) so hopefully I will have that in my hands soon. Soon!
I do spend a hell of a lot less time online since to do anything I have to go to the computer lab where I can't eat or drink or listen to music or be alone. Luckily I don't actually need a computer for papers or anything for a long time, but I had not appreciated how often I listen to music and what it is like to live in silence. I have music on pretty much any time I'm in my room, since I don't use my room to do homework, only to relax. Wearing headphones with my iPod just isn't the same. It's creepy how quiet and lonely it is being in a room without any sounds. And I get grumpy if I haven't listened to music all day, so now I'm making a point to take my iPod to breakfast or to the study lounge for French homework (which is easy enough that I can listen to music while doing it) and just to lie on my bed at the end of the day and listen to something. But it's not the same, and I can't wait until I can plug in my Bose speakers to my new laptop and be back to normal. That is, after I figure out how to get all my music on the computer and into iTunes in the right folder. Sigh.
Last Saturday Alexis and I spent half the day in LA. We had lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant and then went to Pasadena where I met her UCLA friend Matt (who is adorable and lovely) and walked around despite the gloomy weather. That night was the infamous 80s party at Pomona, which was pretty fun. Eva didn't go because she had lots of work and we never found Keri and Alexis was with her boy crush so I was alone for most of it, but I was drunk and knew enough of the songs that it was still fun for a while. I walked home when I was tired of dancing and made it into bed okay. Yesterday was one of those days when you just can't figure out what you want to do, so I spent the afternoon kind of wandering/driving around, plus I got some 24-hour bug and felt weird all day, but luckily I had very little homework and was able to kind of just zone out all night. Despite getting only a few hours of sleep because I was hot and then cold and then hot and then thirsty, I woke up today feeling 100% better and having a hot shower first thing in the morning made everything better. (The last shower I had happened during a four-hour pipe problem so it was freezing cold and miserable).
All my friends have crazy amounts of homework, papers and midterms going on for the next two weeks until Spring Break and I happened to not get at all slammed. I have one midterm this Wednesday and one next Wednesday but I don't expect either to be that hard, and then it's Spring Break and we're going skiing! The semester is flying by; it's going to be summer before you know it.
I've been really disappointed in coffee lately. I think I'm getting used to/addicted to Mudd's strange coffee that comes out of a machine and is probably terrible for you but I love it anyway. The campus coffee shop just isn't doing it for me these days, and since I no longer make it myself since I eat breakfast in the dining hall, I'm at a loss! It always tastes watery, bitter, burnt, or all three. Gah.